Recovery

Fairly light weekend planned. I'm feeling a little beat up with a sore left knee and left hip. I suspect I've been favoring my left side a bit even though I can't tell that I'm uneven. Probably makes sense to do some treadmill running in front of a mirror and stay aware of my balance.

Steph and Brit are off to Vineman this weekend. We're looking forward to following them on-line. I suspect we'll see them both post great times.

The Plan

So I made my payment to multisports and now have my plan. I had one for IMCDA too but probably only followed it half the time. The other half of the time I ad-libbed and did what I felt like or what felt right.

I'm going to try and be a little more disciplined this time. The one exception may be a few of my swim workouts. We've started swimming in the canal behind the house and I love the variety. It's open water and we can go for about 3/4 of a mile before we have to turn around. For some reason it is much easier mentally to swim for an hour in the canal than it is to do the same distance in the pool.

Workout plan for tomorrow calls for a turbo-trainer session which is nice since that's what we've been doing every Tuesday anyway. Kebby, Steph and I will be in the pain cave first thing in the morning. As an added bonus, we've brought in a couple of heaters and humidifiers to simulate race conditions.

Hammer time or pillow time?

Had a strong week of training....I think. Kebby left on Saturday and I got in a three hour ride after dropping her off. Ran and lifted on Sunday. Followed the normal routine with a swim on Monday and Wednesday and a good bike session in the pain cave on Tuesday.

Steph joined me on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, so those sessions were particularly intense. Thanks to my many hours training with Kebby, I felt right at home as Steph swam away from me on Wednesday and dropped me on the hills Thursday. Nope. No concerns at all. I've seen this movie before. Start together and end together but that's about all the "together" you get out of the "training together" with those two. It's cool though to see how much Steph has improved over the last six months. She absolutely ripped the hills on the ride.

Now the reason I said it has been a good week of training "I think" has nothing to do with the intensity of frequency of workouts. Rather it has to do with a note from my new bff - Heather. I signed up again for the multisports.com program for Hawaii last Friday. The first time I signed up, I received the password and my training plan almost immediately. This time it took a couple of days, so I sent a note saying that I needed the password and wanted to get training again.

I got the password but also received a very stern note from Heather saying that I shouldn't be working out at all for at least two weeks after IMCDA and shouldn't start training with any intensity again for three to four weeks! Wow. I'm sure she knows what she talking about but I think I feel fine. My question now, is do I really know how to read my body? How are you supposed to feel when you can train hard and when should you hold back? Obviously I don't know but my mission now is to figure it out.

Runnin legs

Starting to feel normal again on the run. Did a fairly easy four mile run up canon street this afternoon. Coming down actually felt worse than going up.

Whew!

Ended up getting in a nice ride today with five repeats up the tide pool hills. Came within a bugs but of having a catastrophic fall though. I rode over to Cabrillo and began the repeats. The legs felt great and I was having a great time. Unfortunately, things got pretty hairy on the third descent. I was zipping back down the hill when my rear tire popped. I heard it blow and started to slow down when the brakes locked and I began to skid. My rear wheel began to fishtail and for a moment, I thought I was going over the side. Luckily I was able to use the front brake and I popped a foot out and literally dragged it on the ground when I got slow enough to do so.

After checking my shorts, I crossed the road and found a flat spot where I could set up and make the change. After I pulled the wheel off, I saw where the tire had been worn flat when the rear brakes grabbed. I wasn't quite sure what to do, so I went ahead and put in the new tube and inflated. The pressure held for all of two seconds and that tube blew out through the hole in the tire. It was then that I became keenly aware that everyone I knew to call was gone, so I began the long walk home.

After about ten minutes a cyclist stopped and asked if I needed help. I told him about the tire and said that I would just walk home. Lucky for me, this guy was not only kind enough to stop but he was experienced as well. He said to try putting a dollar bill between the tube and the tire and seeing if that would work. Lo and behold it did! Never caught the guys name but if you're reading this...THANK YOU! If not, rest assured, I'm sending good karma vibes your way. I made it home on my patched up tire and proceeded to grab a bite to eat, put on a new tire and turn around and head back out. Got in another two repeats and called it a day. All in all, it was four hours from start to finish with probably three hours actually in the saddle.

Words that don't make sense

Well...I'm officially starting my training for Hawaii. Never thought I'd say (or write) those words. After a fair amount of debating over the "legitimacy" of the slot, I have come to terms with it. Wrote the big check yesterday and am gearing up for hill repeats today.